Are you freecyling? If you're not, you should be. Freecycling is a term that comes from the group freecycle.org which is a website that connects users to each other in their communities so that they can give away stuff instead of throwing it out.

"Our mission is to build a worldwide gifting movement that reduces waste, saves precious resources & eases the burden on our landfills while enabling our members to benefit from the strength of a larger community." -freecycle.org

Sounds like a very noble cause but does it work? From the sounds of things freecycle.org is doing pretty well in fulfilling its purpose. With 4 million members strong, it is a power for change to be reckoned with.

The way the site works is that it connects you to your local freecycle group (usually these are on Yahoo groups or MySpace or something similar). Then you can go to the group and browse what people are giving away or post what you want to give away. If anything, it's really fun to see what stuff people are giving away and the fact that people are taking it.

An article in Fortune discusses freecycle.org and its success:

“The Freecycle Network is an amazing Internet phenomenon. In four years, it's become one of the most effective environmental groups around. It's also an example of how social networking can be used to address social and environmental problems.”

As a result of this success freecycle.org has won a variety of internet awards and has shown the world that internet activism can make a difference. After all, having 4 million people give and receive instead of buying and throwing out is a lot of saved trash.

“Freecycle's inventor, a man named Deron Beal, estimates that the network keeps the equivalent of 300 tons of stuff out of landfills every day.”

Offering a service like freecycle is still not easy though and Beal has struggled to keep the site alive. By accepting a very controversial sponsorship from Waste Management (the largest trash collector in North America and has a history of environmental abuse) the site lives on. This move however, caused some of Freecycle's “founding fathers” to create a split off site called freesharing.org which has a meager 350,000 members, but apparently better morals.

“One man's trash is another man's treasure.”

This mantra has new concrete meaning with the success of freecycle.org. According to treehugger.com the website is a success and is making a difference. In one of their blogs they share their story about using freecycle and they had people coming to pick up a huge variety of things that they had posted. All this exchanging of strange items makes me wonder what people do with the stuff or use it for anyways? What does it matter in the end though? As long as people are not throwing it out its better then the alternative and with 4 million people Freecycling its making a real difference. So next time you are throwing something out give Freecycling a chance.